The first experimental treatment of patients infected with COVID-19 has started in Norway, reports Euronews. The experimental treatments will be seen as studies and will involve tests of three drug treatments, including medicines meant to cure Malaria and Ebola.
The first drug to be tested is reported to be Plaquenil, which originally was made to cure Malaria and afterwards the drug against Ebola.
“The Malaria medicine reduces inflammation and works against the parasite, which may be a possible effect-mechanism,” said the Chief Director of the Research Council of Norway, John-Arne Rottingen.
“But we don’t know yet if the Ebola medicine will work against the coronavirus,” added John-Arne Rottingen.
The study of experimental treatments will include several of the hundred of infected patients in Norway, according to Euronews. The study will take at least three months to be completed, and only by then will there be prescribed an approved medicine for COVID-19.
“As soon as any of these hospitals or countries get the confirmation that one of these medications is effective, we will stop the study and offer it to everybody,” said Anne-Ma Dyrhol Riise, the Chief Physician at the Department for Infectious Medicine at Oslo University Hospital.
Source: Euronews
